What an idiot. I thought Christie might actually NOT be as stupid as he seems since wasn't running for president in 2016 and yet, here he is, proving me wrong. Oh, well, just as well he burn his self out on this election so he won't have a chance in eight years.

I believe all the anti-vax people are exactly the annoying idiots who want to be friends with their children, not parents, but pals. It is hard to be chummy with your kid when you take them to be forcibly hurt with needles. Oh, they'll justify not vaccinating them with whatever celebrity/insane bullshit is out there, but in the end they don't do it because they don't want their precious snowflakes to get hurt and be blamed for it. Dear Lord. If I was someone's kid today, I'd be pretty damn pissed to grow up and realize I'm not immunized at all and have to go to the expense, pain and side effects that adult vaccination involves. Not to mention actually GETTING some loathsome disease because my parents were wimpy fools.

Pulease. Paul. You know I adore you, so I am biased. But. Being as objective as possible: you are cute. Full head of hair and nice voice. If you're not George Clooney (thank the dear Lord, one is enough) then you are so much better. Interesting, approachable, and YOU READ. Only criticism is maybe get more angular glasses to balance out the round tones of face and hair. Overall, you are a definite 7 in looks, with upgrade to 9+ for personality, political affiliation and brains.

@31 - yes, you're right about dining out on bad date/lay stories. I had a very bad date in college (make-out session, not full-on sex, thankfully) but I told the hilarious tale for years. I had to stop because the guy in the tale is a tiny bit, slightly famous now and I'd rather not get the story on the Internet FOREVER. The guy was a clueless 19-yr-old, so he had an excuse. I'm hoping he got the help he needed from some other patient women along the way.

Good for them. My experience in retail is that the top executives and main office staff are not in touch with the reality of customers shopping in their stores. They listen to idiot consultants about what they should be doing to save more money, like ending full-time employees, making everyone part-time (few benefits, no insurance). Oh, wait, all those full-timers were the lifeblood of the stores, the individuals who knew the business and were enthusiastic about helping customers. These employees were the reason the public shopped the stores in the first place. Once these knowledgeable employees left (because they needed a full-time paycheck), customers quit coming in.

Companies that succeed can do so by actually asking questions and listening to the retail employees at their store level. I mean really listen and take into account what their workers are saying. AND STOP listening to consultants who just make shit up to justify their fees. Whenever something stupid comes down from corporate, we all know it is some idiot consultant who sold a clueless executive some miracle idea. Huh. Said executive probably never worked at the store level and has no clue what in the trenches retail needs.

Companies should do something equivalent to the "Secret Shop" (process of paying someone to shop at random places, random times and record their experiences to rate retail stores; this use to be the terror of all retail employees, but the Great Recession ended this practice in a lot of retail chains) and have "Secret Information Gathering." Hire a handful of employees as new hirees/transfer employees to different stores and write reports of what they learn from current employees.

@30 - I agree with you. Add to that what @20 said about being linked to the death. My opinion is the LW should not go. I am sure her girlfriend knows she cannot easily afford it financially. But even if money was not an issue for the LW, I don't think their relationship is at the stage that it could handle the stress of the situation. No matter if she truly felt and could act the way Dan suggested, I think she could be an emotional burden on her girlfriend by being JUST ONE MORE THING she'd have to deal with during a stressful time.